escape of women and girls from the homes

With the Name of God

With conveying my regards to the all readers, our current discussion is about the escape of women and girls from the homes and what could be the backwash of these escapes. For this round table the guests with us are Ms. Homaira Selaiman, social affairs employee at Medica Afghanistan Organization and Ms. Adela Amarkhail the deputy of the human rights commission, Kabul field office; I welcome the guests for this discussion.

Question: At the beginning; I would like to ask Ms. Selaiman that how would you assess the current conditions of women and girls in the country?

Answer: In the recent year based on my views the conditions of the women are changed toward betterment because we are the witness that women are seen in different governmental organizations and they are actively participating in different affairs i.e. in the parliament, judicial institutions, civil society organizations and many more organizations; which itself is a witness of good conditions of the women in the recent years.

From the other side; there are points for concern regarding the women, still the women in the families and in the working environments sometimes faces violence, for example if we consider the violence case of Sahar Gul then we know that with how much cruelty the violence was done against her, and or that in the peace process with Taliban nothing discussed about the women and in this process they were not involved; where we can say that there are points of concern in this regard.

Question: Ms. Amarkhail; what activities are required to be done so that the violence mentioned by Ms. Selaiman is also eliminated?

Answer: Without doubt; the issue of violence against women in our country is clear topic in our country which requires a continues struggles, and if we would like to completely eliminate this phenomenon from the country then the government and non-government organizations and institutions jointly and continuously should work because with the activities of one organization and that is also segmentally; this would not reach to the targets and the problems will remain the same.

From the other side when we would like to drag a problem from its roots which is in the society level then we are required to find its causes and factors; that based on which factor this problem is existing in the society, so if we would like to remove a problem from its roots then we need to aware the people from their rights, increase the literacy level of people, struggle to improve the economic conditions of people, reduce the poverty and all these activities should be continues, sustainable and at the country level.

Question: Based on your opinion the conditions of the women have developed or inversely the problems have increased?

Answer: First of all I would like to say that in the current situations that women understand about their rights and they know about the institutions working in this regard, and whenever they are faced with violence they contact these institutions; where these contacts show the upward movement of the violence graph against the women.

Question: Ms. Selaiman; based on your views, what are the cause of women and girls escapes from homes?

Answer: Based on my views; the most important factor of women and girls escapes from homes are poverty, family violence, under age marriages, forced marriages, getting too much money for the wedding ceremony, lack of awareness regarding the rights of both parties and some other problems which may be considered as the most important factors.

Whenever a girl or a woman faces any one of the mentioned problems; perforce, in order to get rid of this problem attempt the escape.

Question: Based on your opinion; should escape considered as the first solution of the problem or the last?

Answer: As the women and the girls are not aware of their rights and they don’t know that what else they can do; finally they select the escape but if for this category some activities are done through media, religious scholars and or they are aware of their rights in the educational institutions then without doubt they will find another way as well.

Question: Ms. Amarkhail; how do you see the future of those girls and women who are escaping from their homes?

Answer: First of all I would like to say that these decision are made based on the emotions and without doubt those who are making decisions during emotions they will face with problems defects, but it is to say that escapes from homes have frail outcomes in future because whenever the girls are cheated and they escape from the homes, in the Islamic society they loses their value; from the other side the escape of a girl with a boy has its religious problems in behind as well and based on the Islamic Laws they have committed a crime and spite of serving for their country they go to the prison and they ruin their future. In all the discussions that I had in different media; I have encouraged the girls to find and select the other alternatives solutions for their problems rather to escape from homes.

The other problems that escape from home has; these kinds of girls and women who are encouraged for these actions they become victim of the smugglers and or in the families where they go as house wife and they start their lives they start with problems and normally these lives are not sustainable and may not continue for a longer period of time.

Question: Do you have files available with you that show those girls escaped from their homes then faced such problems?

Answer: Without doubt; there are plenty of cases available that the girls escaped from their homes and they are not accepted back by their families and or in the family of the boy with whom she escaped and then got married, she had faced with many problems. But we have always struggle to explain it with the Islamic laws & civil laws and in most of the cases we abled to overcome with a proper solutions for such problems.

Question: Is only the escape of women and girls from their homes are considered as crime based on the law or not?

Answer: Well; if a girl is escaping from the home and she is not engaged and or not married and at the time of escape her aim is to marry the ideal person she wants and she contacted any of the relevant organization or institution and request for a safeguard then it is not a crime but if a women who is already married and then she escape from the home then without doubt the she will have punishment based on the law.

Also whenever a women is escaping from the home because of the family side violence and go for a safety to one of relevant institutions then based on the law it is not considered as crime, because in the law it is mentioned that if a women is having family problems like violence then first of all should go to one of her relatives house and if no one take care of her problem then she should contact to one of the relevant institution for the solution of her problem.

Question: Ms. Selaiman; based on your views whenever the girls are attempting the escape, how many of them succeed to their aims and or they facing problems by these actions?

Answer: Well; whenever the women and girls are escaping from their families, the only target of them is to get free from the family violence but they don’t know that outside the family there are a number of other problems waiting for them, if they want or don’t want they have to face those problems; only there are few of them that they succeed to reach their targets.

Question: Ms. Amarkhail; based on your opinion how much the custom and traditions of our country is effecting the escapes from homes?

Answer: if we honestly talk; the customs and traditions of our country is superior than the laws and these customs and traditions leads to the escapes of some girls and women, let’s see the underage marriages, taking too much money during the marriages, lack of consultation with the girls about their life partner, these are all the customs and traditions that are in our country and these points are continuously leading to the escapes of the girls from their homes and families; these escapes are not only harming themselves but it also put in problems the both families.

Question: Ms. Selaiman; for the solution of this problem what should be done, which ways will you propose?

Answer: Based on my views the ways which can lead us towards our kind targets and reduce these problems could be the provision of awareness to all people of the society, giving the same values to the girls as we are giving to the boys, from other side giving girls the authority of selecting their futures and they themselves decide about their futures, these actions could reduce the phenomena of escapes of the girls from their homes.

Question: Ms. Amarkhail; based on your views, if someone is escaping from the home, should they punish and or informed that the escape is not good?

Answer: Without doubt; whenever we come to know that a girl or women is deciding to escape, then consultation and giving healthy advices inside their families could be an extremely good work and this effort should be taken place by everyone, if it is the governmental or non-governmental organizations they should seriously work on these issues but if a girl or woman is escaping from the home and outside the home commit a crime the she should be punished because if we support the criminals then it is not good based on the Islamic and civil commandments.

Question: Ms. Selaiman; based on your views is the foreign cultures, watching movies and actions broadcasted through these media are effective in the escapes of the girls and women?

Answer: without doubt; one of the factors which could be effective in the process of escapes of girls and women could be the broadcasting of foreign countries dramas which are through some media; where our young generation are more focusing on the negative points as compare to the positive points and they act upon it, where this action itself is effecting on the escapes of women and girls.

From the other side forced marriages, marriages in early ages, family violence are the factors which are effective in the escape of this layer or category of society.

Question: Is there any statistics which shows that how many women and girls escaped from their homes.

Answer: The exact statistics which shows the exact numbers of the women escaped from their homes are not available but it is said that with the passage of time each year the escapes of women are increasing rather to decrease. After the physical violence and divorce cases; escape from homes are on the third number.

With many thanks from you all that you followed our discussion until end of the program; until next program good bye.